PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY OF COUNCIL OF EUROPE ADOPTS DECLARATION ON FREEDOM OF RELIGION IN RUSSIA
SOVA Center for News and Analysis, 16 October 2017
On 13 October 2017, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a declaration on freedom of religious confession in Russia. The declaration was signed by 28 deputies from 14 European states.
The authors of the declaration note that although the constitution of the RF guarantees to each citizen the right to freedom of religious confession, this right is under threat inasmuch as the Russian authorities are continuing to maintain an atmosphere of intolerance, discrimination, and persecution with respect to religious minorities in the entire territory of the country. Thus, recently the chief organization of the Jehovah's Witnesses, a Christian denomination that renounces violence, was banned as extremist by a decision of the Supreme Court.
Evangelical Christians, Lutherans, Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists, Presbyterians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Scientologists, and other denominations are subjected in Russia to persecution, the declaration says, and several of them have been held in pretrial custody on the basis of a law of 2002 on combating extremist activity, although actually they are charged with affiliation with peaceful religious movements and participation in their activity. The law on combating extremist activity marked the start of an alarming trend—the use of repressive measures with respect to civil society and religious movements that are "not traditional for Russia." The law was adopted soon after 11 September 2001 with the aim of combating terrorism, although it does not contain a clear definition of extremism, because of which practically any person or group of persons can find themselves under threat of political or religious persecution.
The declaration contains a call to the Russian government to put an end to these violations of the right of religious minorities to freedom of religious confession. (tr. by PDS, posted 17 October 2017)
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